I’ve been away on holiday to the beautiful little Isle of Bute.
Of course I took my notebook with me. In fact I always take two. One larger one that I use in the mornings to write in before my husband gets up. And then a smaller one that I take with me just in case.
I decided with the bigger one that I would keep things positive when I wrote. Often I find that my first thing in the morning writing is a big unload of grumbles that have gathered in the night and stresses about the day ahead. It is one of the reasons I stopped doing Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. Nothing creative seemed to come just a series of whinges.
It was interesting how easy it was to change what could have been a whinge into a positive. So say instead of writing “I’m really worried that we’ll walk to far and it’ll all be too much” I wrote “I am looking forward to the walk into town in a bit. I wonder where it will lead?” There then followed a prose poem about peace and tranquility around walking.
I think often with free writing it is easy to moan because we have been told to not think too hard about it, but I am finding that it helps my mood when I leave the writing if I just stop myself going down whingy rabbit holes.
I’ve been doing a lot of blogging on my personal blog, Aspirational Adventures, around The Lord’s Prayer. And again viewing it in a positive light. For instance “give me my daily bread” can be a gratitude thing about knowing and trusting that I will have all that I will need for the day or it can be a worry thing of wondering if I will have all that I need. When it is a gratitude thing then my day is calm and peaceful and I presume all I need happens in it. But if I am worried and whinging then it becomes a stress filled day.
So my advise would be that when one is free write journaling to keep veering towards to positive, towards the gratitude, rather than just whinge dumping. Nadia Bolz-Weber has written a brilliant piece on being positivity, happiness and increasing those dopamine levels in Happiness Hacks. Well worth reading.
Give it a go and see what happens.
Of course my struggle now, with all the hassles of being back home, etc, is to keep this up and not go back to the unloading journaling!!!